MADE.By You. For You. {@CHIxMPLS}

Tag Archives: Full

Die-hard drill instructors, jailbreaking football coaches, and corrupt backwoods sheriffs. It was all just another day of work for former Marine Corp. drill instructor-turned-actor R. Lee Ermey, who died earlier this week. Ermey was an incredibly dynamic character-actor with an instantly recognizable face and rambunctious personality. The Kansas native joined the Marine Corp. in lieu of jail time after he’d been arrested twice by the age of 17. He began his career serving as a drill instructor in San Diego during the early 1960s before eventually being sent on a 14-month deployment in Vietnam. He was injured during his tour in 1969 and was sent to work as a staff sergeant in Okinawa before being medically discharged in 1972, ending his hopes of a long military career. After moving to the Philippines to attend college, Ermey married and began taking odd jobs in television commercials before landing his first film role as Sgt. Loyce in a movie called The Boys in Company C, which followed five young Marine Corp. recruits from their bootcamp training to their deployment in Vietnam. Continue reading →

This week’s memorable movie moment takes us back to the first sequel to Jurassic Park, The Lost World (1997). Also based on the preceding novel by Michael Crichton, the film is the only Jurassic Park sequel to be directed by Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, Bridge of Spies), although he has served as executive producer on JP3 (2001) and Jurassic World (2015). In fact The Lost World is the only sequel that Spielberg has opted to direct, outside of the Indiana Jones series. It was also his first time back to film after he took a leave of absence when Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List were completed and became box office hits both in the same year. Author Michael Crichton had titled the book after the famous novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which also features a mysterious island with dinosaurs and other strange phenomena.

Director Baltasar Kormakur (Contraband, 2 Guns) will see his latest drama titled Everest open on big screens across the country this September 25th. Working from a screenplay by Oscar-nominee William Nicholson (Gladiator, Les Miserables) and Oscar-winner Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty, Slumdog Millionaire), the film follows an expedition to the top of Mount Everest that quickly becomes a nail-biting fight for survival when a snow storm hits the mountain. Starring in the film are actors Jason Clarke (Lawless, Terminator: Genisys), Josh Brolin (Men in Black 3, No Country For Old Men), John Hawkes (American Gangster, Lincoln), Robin Wright (Forrest Gump, House of Cards), Emily Watson (Red Dragon, War Horse), Keira Knightly (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Imitation Game), Sam Worthington (Avatar, Terminator Salvation), and Jake Gyllenhaal (October Sky, Prisoners). Seeing as William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy, who combined have an incredibly impressive catalogue of work, including Nell (1994), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), 127 Hours (2010), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), and Unbreakable (2014), on top of having an excellent cast, I’m sure this one will be much better than everybody is anticipating. The trailer is available here on MADE, so remember to mark your calendars!

Filmmaker Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer) is currently working on principle photography for his upcoming remake of the classic 1960 western The Magnificent Seven. The original film was directed by legendary director John Sturges (The Great Escape, Joe Kidd) and featured an all-star cast that included Yul Brynner (The Ten Commandments), Eli Wallach (The Good The Bad and the Ugly), Steve McQueen (Bullitt), Charles Bronson (Death Wish), Robert Vaughn (Julius Caesar), Brad Dexter (Run Silent Run Deep), and James Coburn (Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid). Composer Elmer Bernstein received an Oscar-nomination for Best Musical Score (Drama/Comedy) for his work on the picture, and the film was selected for the National Film Registry by the National Film Preservation Board in 2013. Continue reading →

Academy Award winner (and 13x nominee) Stanley Kubrick is well deserved of his reputation and stature as one of Hollywood’s most celebrated filmmakers. He passed away in 1999, but his long-standing legacy included such films as A Clockwork Orange (1971), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Full Metal Jacket (1987), The Shining (1980), and his last film with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), all of which he wrote and produced himself. Now, 16 years after his death, Kubrick’s storytelling will be able to reach modern audiences in the form of a new film trilogy by director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball) called The Downslope. The script for Downslope was actually written by Kubrick back in 1956 and revolved around a feud between Union General George Armstrong Custer and Confederate Colonel John Singleton Mosby and his Mosby’s Rangers, who time-and-again succeeded in raids and surprise-attacks against the much larger Union militants. Forster will actually be developing a trilogy of films following Kubrick’s script, which he developed over several years with historian Shelby Foote while researching Custer and Mosby, even drawing up maps and details of the battle scenes and how he would have filmed it. Obviously Kubrick, himself, never ended up making the movie, but considering his extensive work in its production, Forster should be able to get pretty close to his original vision, only with modern filmmaking technology. Information on a release date or casting is not yet available, but we’ll keep an eye out for more news. Stay tuned!

With the release date for the upcoming Entourage movie quickly approaching, fans will definitely want to watch the new trailer. The movie will bring back stars Adrian Grenier (A.I., Hart’s War), Kevin Connolly (John Q, The Notebook), Jeremy Piven (Old School, Smokin’ Aces), Jerry Ferrara (Think Like A Man, Lone Survivor), and Kevin Dillon (Platoon, The Doors) as Vince, Eric, Ari, Turtle, and Drama, plus a whole ensemble of supporting cast members, including series producer Mark Wahlberg (Four Brothers, The Departed), Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four, Awake), Debi Mazar (Goodfellas, Batman Forever), David Spade (Tommy Boy, Joe Dirt), Bob Saget (Full House, America’s Funniest Home Videos), Armie Hammer (The Social Network, The Lone Ranger), Billy Bob Thornton (Armageddon, Monster’s Ball), Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), and series regular Rhys Coiro (The Unborn, Straw Dogs) as outspoken independent-director Billy Walsh. Picking up 15 years after the show first began, Ari is now the head of the studio and recruits Vincent to star in his first picture, but Vince wanting to direct the film, plus a whole new series of flings and E and Sloan’s (Emmanuelle Chriqui) new baby bring about a whole new series of obstacles the entourage must overcome to stay on top. The film is written and directed by series creator Doug Ellin (The Waiter, Phat Beach) and is released by Warner Bros. in partnership with HBO. Enjoy!

Do you have to be miserable to be funny? That’s the premise of a new documentary from writer/director Kevin Pollak (Casino, The Usual Suspects) and co-writer John Vorhaus (The Sentinel, Save Angel Hope) that is now available online. The documentary, titled Misery Loves Comedy, has already been awarded an Official Sundance Selection and will also see a big-screen release at New York City’s Tribeca Film Festival on April 24th, but you can also find it currently available online. Comedians Amy Schumer (Amy Schumer: Mostly Sex Stuff, Trainwreck), Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats), Jimmy Fallon (Almost Famous, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon), Martin Short (Mars Attacks, Father of the Bride Part 2), Whoopi Golberg (Ghost, Sister Act), Jim Gaffigan (Away We Go, It’s Kind of a Funny Story), Nick Swardson (Grandma’s Boy, Just Go With It), Bob Saget (Full House, Entourage) and many more are featured in the film that is being dedicated to the memory of Robin Williams (Mrs. Doutbfire, Good Will Hunting). The trailer is available here on MADE.

The new action-thriller with star Liam Neeson (Taken 3, A Walk Among The Tombstones) is opening in theaters tomorrow from director Juame Collet-Serra (House of Wax, Orphan). The two filmmakers have worked on several previous projects together, including Unknown (2011) and last year’s Non-Stop; this time out Neeson stars as mob-hitman Jimmy Conlon, who is approached by his long-time friend and mob-boss, Shawn MaGuire, when the former kills the latter’s son and wants to exact justice in a game of you-killed-my-son-so-I’m-gonna-kill-yours. The story comes from screenwriter Brad Ingelsby (The Dynamiter, Out of the Furnace) and co-stars Oscar-nominee Ed Harris (The Abyss, Apollo 13), Joel Kinnaman (Safe House, RoboCop), Boyd Holbrook (The Skeleton Twins, Gone Girl), Bruce McGill (Cinderella Man, Lincoln), and Vincent D’Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket, Men In Black). Check out the trailer here on MADE, then see it in theaters this Friday.

Actor Leonard Nimoy, who portrayed Spock in the original Star Trek television series in the 1960s, died this week at the age of 83 in Los Angeles. Nimoy began his career as a regular guest on popular TV shows in the 1950s and early 60s, including The Untouchables, Get Smart, and The Twilight Zone. His breakthrough role came when he was noticed on an episode of The Lieutenant, which earned him the role of Spock in Star Trek, which he would be bound to for the rest of his life. Nimoy portrayed the character of Spock virtually for the rest of his career; he starred in the original TV series and the motion-picture series, even directing the third and fourth films, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. The actor was also an avid photographer and studied at UCLA, later publishing several controversial photography collections titled The Shekhina Project and another called The Full Body Project. His final acting role was as scientist William Bell on the Fox-network drama Fringe, but he also made a special appearance in director J.J. Abrams‘ 2009 re-boot film Star Trek, and again in Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013). Nimoy leaves behind his wife Susan and his son and daughter Adam and Julie; may he rest in peace.

Finally after months of waiting we have a trailer for the upcoming sequel/reboot Jurassic World from director Colin Trevorrow. The film features Chris Pratt (The 5-Year Engagement, Guardians of the Galaxy), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village, The Help), Jake Johnson (Let’s Be Cops, 21 Jump Street), Judy Greer (Love & Other Drugs, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), and Vincent D’Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket, Men In Black). Picking up more than twenty years after the original film, the island that featured Jurassic Park is now a fully functional tourist attraction that brings visitors from all over the world to see the genetically-engineered dinosaurs, until, of course, a new disaster quickly arises on our cast members. The film is expected in theaters on June 12, 2015. Enjoy!